1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of controlling a mechanical parking system and calculating a parking fee, and more particularly to a parking control system to which a computer, a control unit, a parking ticket issuer, and a parking ticket recognizer are connected via a network for allowing any required information to be used among them.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally in a conventional mechanical parking system, a car is moved to a respective floor along hoistway with use of a lift, then parked in respective parking space with use of pallets. In that system, a fee calculator and a parking ticket issuer are separately operated such that each operation of a parking machine, a parking ticket issuer, and the fee calculator is performed separately.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the conventional mechanical parking installation includes a lift 102 for lifting a car 101 to a respective floor by a user, a lift driving device 103 for carrying the lift in upper and lower directions within hoistway, a plurality of pallets 105 which load a car 101, carried to a respective floor by the lift 102, to a parking space 104 or which unload a car 101, already loaded to the parking space, toward the lift 102, a manipulating unit 106 for manipulating the car 101 to be loaded and unloaded, and a control unit 107 for detecting a status of loading and unloading the car and a manipulating condition and for controlling that manipulation of loading and unloading the car. The operation of the installation will be explained below, referred to FIGS. 2 and 3.
At first, the process for manipulating the car to be loaded in the parking space will be explained.
When a user loads a car 101 on the lift 102 of the parking installation, a central process unit 304, hereinafter referred to CPU, finds out a position of the car based on detect signals of various sensors, which is input via an input unit 301, and then outputs guidance information through an output unit 302.
Accordingly, the user designates a vehicle number and a loading position in a car-loading mode after confirming its safety with use of a ten key 206 of the manipulating unit 106.
At this time, CPU 204 of the manipulating unit 106 outputs a control command designated by the ten key 206, and the command is transmitted via a communication unit 205 and a communication line 208 (RS485 or RS422) to the control unit 107.
Following that, the control unit 107 monitors a position of the car 101 through the input unit 301 and, at the same time, controls the lift driving device 103 such that the lift 102 can moves to a respective floor. Then the control unit 107 controls the pallet 105 to be moved laterally such that the car 101 can be loaded in a respective parking space 104.
After completion of the above loading process, a driver receives a parking ticket written by hand or issued by a parking ticket issuer.
From now on, the process of manipulating the car 101 to be unloaded will be explained.
In unloading the car, the user reads contents of the parking ticket and calculates its fee by hand or by calculator. Then, after confirming its safety with the manipulating unit 106, the user notifies an unloading command by such a manner of designating the vehicle number or the loaded position.
At this time, the control unit 107 unloads the car 101 in a process reverse to the loading process, according to the unloading command notified from the manipulating unit 106.
However, in such a conventional parking installation, because the driving unit, the fee calculator, and the ticket issuer are operated separately and therefore the user performs a driving operation and a ticket issuing operation separately, there are difficulties for the user to manipulate the system, and furthermore, there are some defects in accuracy of calculating the fee.